How to Improve Customer Service by Dr. Natalie (Part 3) And Make The Right Changes, Quickly

Social Customer Service: Iterating How You Provide Service to Customers

In the last post, I talking about John Boyd and how his OODA Loop was a good way to think about the benefits of social customer service. John Boyd was a great fighter pilot who came up with a system to duplicate making such good decisions. I talked about how you could learn from the system he created to make better business decisions — especially in customer service. For the whole story on how to use the OODA Loop as a unique way to use Social Media to improve Customer Service, download the white paper here. Or read on…

We covered the Observe part of the OODA Loop- Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. You might have caught my webinar on Social Customer Service as the Force Multiplier which goes into this in more detail. Here we look at whether you listen and act on customer/employee feedback. And do you do it faster than your competitors? And can you tell if you are we on track? One of the things that is happening in the lean-start-up movement is the ability for businesses to be agile, to iterate, to fail fast and fix what’s not working quickly…

In military operations, OODA takes place in seconds. In corporations, it’s much slower. In fact, the current year’s strategy is rigidly followed till next year’s planning cycle. What companies need to consider is that with the real-time web, waiting a year to make a change is too slow. In fact, waiting a month or a week may take a customer service issue, spread by social channels, into a PR nightmare. Consider stories like United Breaks Guitars as one way that customers are fighting back against what they perceive is poor customer interactions. It’s critical to validate we’re on track or correct it. Especially in the Age of Social Business.

Full diagram originally drawn by John Boyd for his briefings on military strategy, fighter pilot strategy, etc (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other thing to consider is whether you take feedback, fix what is not working and then repeat that process over and over? In OODA theory, its It not just about going through the OODA loop once. It’s about seeing the OODA Loop as a continuously, on-going process. And then the result of your actions provides the observations to reorient what you decide to do next. Most companies think of Customer Service as a cost center. But what if Customer Service was a way to preserve and generate revenue? Customers are at the boiling point. They no longer want to take what’s handed to them, especially when it comes to Customer Service. And with social media they have a way to make their voice heard.

If we go back in time, people were predicting there would be a technology that would allow customers to talk to each other. And to talk back to companies online when they are dissatisfied and that everyone would be able to see that negative interaction. That prediction was written about in the book The Cluetrain Manifesto, in 1999. We are here now and this is your opportunity to drive innovation and change in your business.

For the whole story on OODA Loop and How to Use Social Media For Business download the white paper here.

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Dr. Natalie is a business strategist and a futurist. She has spent her careers looking about how businesses interact with their customers and their employees and she provides companies with the best way to create environments that foster loyatly, motivation and innovation.